Guide to Checking For Bed Bugs in Hotels

Guide to Checking For Bed Bugs in Hotels in Atlanta GA - Active Pest Control

Hotel rooms, no matter whether they are in a five-star resort or a roadside motel, are ideal bed bug breeding grounds. The risk of these pests must be considered, whether you work in a hotel or are traveling in the near future. According to PestWorld, hotel rooms are one of the three most common places where people encounter bed bugs. Bed bugs have been on the rise for the past decade, and are experiencing another surge as people begin to travel again after the pandemic.

Active Pest Control understands how distressing dealing with bed bugs can be. In this blog, our experts share everything you need to know about inspecting hotel rooms for bed bugs.

Why Are Hotels Prone to Bed Bugs?

There are more and more bed bugs being found not just in residential homes but also in hotels. So what makes hotels so susceptible to these pests? Bed bugs are called “hitchhiking” pests because they can hide in mattresses, bed frames, and other parts of a room just waiting for a new host to arrive. Bed bugs in a hotel are rarely short of a meal source. The resurgence of bed bugs in hotels makes it crucial to always be on the lookout for them when traveling.

Guide For Hotel Bed Bug Inspections

No matter whether you are a housekeeper or a guest in a hotel, the same checklist applies when it comes to inspecting for bed bugs. The top 5 spots to look for these pests are:

  • Mattress, box spring & bed frame
  • Sofas, chairs, pillows, & other seating
  • Wardrobes, dressers, & baseboards
  • Nightstands and wall fixtures
  • Closet items

Hotel Bed Bug Inspection Guide

Need Professional Bed Bug Treatment?

Immediately notify the hotel’s manager if you suspect your room has bed bugs. This helps prevent bed bugs from spreading throughout the hotel. If you work with bed bug control professionals like Active Pest Control, you can trust that the best bed bug treatments will be applied to keep these pests away. Get in touch with us today!

10 Bed Bug Myths Debunked

Bed bug awareness week in Atlanta GA - Bed bug myths debunked by Active Pest ControlBed bugs are certainly one of the most feared pests. Not only does a bed bug infestation cause distress, they can be very difficult to get rid of! There are many theories about bed bugs and their behaviors that have been passed on throughout history. Because these bugs incite a lot of fear, it’s important to separate fact from fiction.

With Bed Bug Awareness Week upon us, the bed bug exterminators at Active Pest Control are here to debunk some common bed bug myths.

False Bed Bug Facts

The following “facts” about bed bugs are simply not true:

  1. Bed bugs are attracted to messy or dirty homes. Unfortunately, anyone can get a bed bug problem. Unsanitary conditions will not lead you to get bed bugs in your home!
  2. Bed bugs only feed at night. Bed bugs are active when their hosts are at rest. This usually means overnight, but they are able to adjust their schedule to fit yours!
  3. These bugs are only found in your bedroom. Bed bugs tend to congregate near areas where people rest. This includes sofas, chairs, cracks in the wall, and even power outlets!
  4. Bed bugs are too small to see with the naked eye. Adult bed bugs are perfectly capable of being seen. They are the size of an apple seed and often grouped together, making it easier to spot an infestation.
  5. They can jump and fly. Fortunately, bed bugs cannot jump or fly as other pests can. They have underdeveloped wings, and instead move from one spot to the other by crawling or latching onto a moving item.
  6. Bed bugs latch or travel on people. Although bed bugs are known to hitch a ride on your purse or suitcase, they do not attach to people as fleas or ticks do.
  7. You can get rid of bed bugs with DIY methods. At-home or DIY treatments for bed bugs are, in a word, ineffective. An aggressive approach from a pest control company is necessary to getting rid of the entire infestation.
  8. Bed bugs transmit dangerous diseases. These pests may cause you anxiety and even itchiness, but their bites do not transmit disease as other pests do.
  9. Bed bugs can live a year without feeding. While they definitely can survive months without a meal, they won’t make it through an entire year unless under optimal conditions.
  10. You should get rid of your mattress and clothing if you have bed bugs. If you are in the midst of an infestation, it’s actually dangerous to move your infested items. Doing so can spread bed bugs into other areas!

You Have Bed Bugs–What Now?

Bed bugs are certainly one of the more terrifying pest problems. It’s important to know the truth about bed bugs in order to better prepare yourself for the chances of an infestation. When you do have a problem, it’s always best to enlist the help of a professional pest control company to get rid of infestation for you, bringing you peace of mind. Contact the team at Active Pest Control to learn more.

Prevent Winter Pests in Your Home

A rodent is one of the many types of winter pests that may invade your GA home in the winter months - Active Pest ControlEveryone knows pests are a problem in the spring and summer months, but what about in the winter? Unfortunately, pests don’t disappear with the colder weather. In fact, many pests will look for ways to enter homes to escape the dropping temperatures, which is why infestations are common in Georgia winters. To protect your property from pest problems in the winter, it’s important to implement pest control and prevention.

Winter Pest Infestations

Certain insects will enter a state of diapause in the winter to wait out the cold months in favor of warmer weather. These include stink bugs, cluster flies, boxelder bugs, and Asian lady beetles. Other pests to be wary of in the winter months include:

  • Rats & mice. House mice and Norway rats in particular are known to squeeze their way indoors during the cold months.
  • Cockroaches. The German cockroach will hitchhike inside in boxes and can spread right under your nose.
  • Spiders. House spiders are typically harmless and can be found in dark, secluded areas of the home.
  • Bed bugs. Known to withstand extreme temperatures, bed bug problems are a threat during the winter.

How to Prevent Winter Pests

To protect your property from winter pests, it’s important to implement preventative measures into your home maintenance routine. This includes thoroughly inspecting your home on a regular basis to locate vulnerabilities. One of the most important measures you can take is to seal cracks and crevices outside your property to keep pests from making their way inside. In addition, you should place screens over vents and chimneys, store firewood away from your property line, promptly fix leaks or broken pipes, and keep a clean home to prevent winter pests.

Is Winter Pest Control Necessary?

Just like you, pests want to escape the cold temperatures during the winter. In their hunt for food and shelter, they may enter your home easier than you want to believe. It’s crucial to implement preventative steps to prevent pests in the winter. Active Pest Control can be trusted to help protect your property from winter pests and other pest problems throughout the entire year. Call our team today to learn more about our winter pest control services!

What Do Bed Bugs Look Like? | [company]

If you have bed bugs, there will come a time in the infestation when you will not have to wonder if the bugs that are plaguing you are bed bugs. These are blood eaters that crawl to get at you. That means you’ll see them crawling across your desk while you’re working on the computer. You’ll see them crawling on the arm of your chair. You’ll see them crawling across the couch. There will be no doubt that these bugs are zeroing in on you. Bed bugs are blood-eating insects. That means they have six legs, like all insects do, and they are attracted to warm-blooded creatures, like you. But the goal of this article is to help you recognize them before they get to a point where they are attacking you by the dozens while you’re watching television, playing games on the computer, sleeping, or doing pretty much anything in your home.

Bed Bug Identification

  • First of all, these creatures are small. The average bed bug will not be larger than a pea. But long before they get that big, they will be plaguing you. Bed bugs go through five developmental stages (instars) before they get to adult size, and they must feed on blood to develop. Most often, bed bugs will hitchhike as larvae, since they can be much harder to see when they are smaller. So you’re looking for a bug that could be about the size of the tip on a pen. This is actually a much more helpful visual cue than you might imagine. There are few bugs this size that will crawl on you or sit in one place biting you.
  • Bed bugs crawl quickly. Since these pests are so small, the best way to identify them is by their behavior. They don’t jump like fleas. They don’t fly like mosquitoes. And they are much faster than ticks when they crawl. If you see a non-flying insect crawling quickly on your skin, there is a good chance it is a bed bug.
  • If you snatch something up off your skin and look at it closely, there are a few things you will quickly notice if the bug you are holding is a bed bug. It will have six legs, a hard insect casing, and horizontal indentations across its oval abdomen.
  • Bed bugs are usually blood red to black in color. This coloring will get darker as it develops toward adulthood.

If you find bed bugs in your Atlanta home, call Active Pest Control for the most advanced treatment options available. These are resilient and resourceful bugs that are extremely hard to get rid of.

Don’t let the bed bugs bite. When you have Active Pest Control, it’s all good.

What You Don’t Know About Bed Bugs

We live in the information age. The way we access knowledge is unlike anything humans have ever experienced before. You can literally take out your phone and ask it, “How far is it from the Earth to the moon?” And depending on what phone you have, it may even speak the answer back to you. By the way, the answer is 230,100 miles. This is absolutely amazing technology! But, there is a danger in thinking you know what you’re doing, because what you don’t know can hurt you.

When it comes to eradicating bed bugs from your home or business, you may be tempted to see if there is a quick fix on the internet, after all, who doesn’t want to save a few bucks. In going to the internet, you are sure to find page after page that says heat can kill these bugs, but a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous. Sure, heat can kill bed bugs. In fact, it does a fantastic job of killing them. But, looking at one self-help DIY blog or two isn’t likely to give you the entire picture.

Here is what you need to know about bed bugs and heat treatments:

  • When the heat rises too quickly, bed bugs run; and they can move quickly. That is why many DIY heat treatments simply drive these bugs into wall voids, where they sit and wait till it is safe to come out. Pest professionals have the education, experience, and products to corral these pests so they don’t escape the heat.
  • There are a lot of things that can go wrong during a heat treatment, especially if you use the wrong heaters. There are countless stories of businesses catching ablaze because of an improper heat treatment. Just recently in the news, employees of a certain motel took furniture out into nearby sheds and attempted to use heat to kill the bed bugs inside the furniture. A fire broke out that nearly caught the motel on fire. Many other businesses have not been as lucky.
  • In order to kill bed bugs, an entire structure must be brought up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit for over an hour. This is no easy task. To get the job done, professionals use self-regulating industrial heaters, heat sensors, and industrial strength fans. Setting an oven to 500 and leaving the door open is not only dangerous, it is completely ineffective.

If you have bed bugs, please don’t attempt a heat treatment on your own. Reach out to the professionals here at Active Pest Control. We are trained and educated in the safe removal of these and other pests.
What you don’t know can hurt you and your property. Stay safe, and get Active Pest Control.

How Active Pest Control Works To Save You Money

When bugs and wildlife get into your Georgia home, they can cause all sorts of problems. That is why it is so important to keep them out. Let’s look at the issues you can expect to deal with this coming year.

Nuisance Pests: These are pests like stink bugs or lady bugs that can squeeze in through the tiniest cracks and crawl all over everything. They love to block your view; they like to crawl all over your window screens blocking the view of your backyard or all over your television screen blocking the view of your favorite movie.

Disease Vectors: These are the creatures that have the ability to carry human spread diseases inside their bodies. When you have rodents, cockroach, ticks, or mosquitoes on your property, you can get things like E. coli, Salmonella, hantavirus, hemorrhagic fever, Lyme disease, plague, and many more. Some of these will leave you with uncomfortable flu symptoms. While others can lead to lifelong illness, and even death.

Illness Spreaders: Some creatures spread illness through a home by picking up harmful bacteria from dumpsters, trash cans, rubbish piles, and sewers. Fruit flies and house flies land on toilet seats and then crawl on food that is left out. Ants go from the trash can to your food prep surfaces, causing illness in a home that is often mistaken for the flu or the common cold.

Home Wreckers: These are the pests that damage your house. On the top of this list is the subterranean termite. These are pests that can live inside the wood of your home and eat it twenty-four hours a day, all year long. Other pests come to chew on wires, chew through walls, and tear up your insulation.

Biters and Stingers: These are the pests that will leave you with a welt–or worse. When you have bed bugs, wasps, spiders, fleas, and other biting pests in or around your home, they can make life miserable.

At Active Pest Control, we know that no two homes are the same, and no two homes need the same pest control. One house may be dealing with skunks and the lice they can bring in, while another may be fighting a millipede invasion, but one thing is true about both, they won’t be fighting only one type of pest. So, rather than charge for each and every pest we protect homes against, we’ve created three packages that cover a range of pests. Our base package, Active Pest Control Edge, covers over 30 common household pests for a base cost of just $30 a month. This is great overall protection that keeps most pests out of your home. When you step up to Active Pest Control Advantage, you add more complex pest control systems, like termite protection and rodent control. This is the best bang for your buck if you want to keep all pests out of your home. But, some homeowners want to control pests in their yard as well. If you’re looking to add seasonal control of mosquitoes, fire ants, as well as property-wide control of termites and rodents, Active Pest Control Complete is the complete solution.

Give us a call today and see if one of these packages is right for you, or have one of our trained specialists custom tailor a package specific to your needs. At Active Pest Control, we have only two goals: Make happy customers, and keep pests out. Bundling pest control options is just one of the many ways we work to do both.

4 Reasons Pests Love the Holidays

What do you love most about the holidays? We’re guessing that spending special time with family and friends is way up at the top of the list, but bugs and wildlife have a different list. Here are the things those pests love most about this festive season.

Oh, Christmas tree. As you’re singing this Christmas tune, remember that there are lots of pests that love those Christmas trees. The one you need to watch out for most is spiders. These creatures leave their eggs in trees. When these egg sacks get into your nice warm house, they are going to think it is springtime–and that will lead to lots and lots of baby spiders decorating your walls. Be sure to shake your tree vigorously before you bring it inside. This can dislodge egg sacks, and also loose needles, from those festive boughs.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Bugs and rodents love to be warm. If they figure out that it is warm inside your house, you may have some uninvited company this holiday season. There isn’t much you can do about this particular attractant. It isn’t practical or comfortable to keep the temperature set at 32°F all winter long, but what you can do is keep those pests out. Inspect the exterior of your home for rotted holes or other openings and use a caulking gun to fill them in. Make sure all your weather stripping and door sweeps are working properly, and inspect your door and window screens for holes.

Dashing through the snow. Holiday is a time for travel, but we’re not the only ones who love to travel during the holidays. This is a prime season for bed bugs to spread. If you plan to spend the night somewhere away from home, be sure to learn how to detect these pests and prevent them from laying their eggs in your clothing or luggage. Bed bug eggs do not need the mother to hatch. That means a single batch of eggs tucked in your belongings could result in a full-blown infestation in a few short months.

You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel. This line from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas gives us a hint at something else those pests love the holidays for. They love food. But not just any kind of food, they specifically enjoy rotting food. That is why it is important to make sure you throw away any pantry items that are past their due date, and consider keeping items that come in cardboard or paper packaging sealed inside hard plastic containers instead. This will help those items last longer and keep all forms of pests out.

Protect your family this holiday season by properly shaking your tree, sealing your walls, learning what signs bed bugs leave behind, and keeping food sources away from those pests. And always remember that the team at Active Pest Control is here if you need us. Happy holidays!

Bed Bug Dangers

It is a simple fact: if you leave your home and go out into the public for work or pleasure there is always a slight risk that bed bugs may come into contact with you or your belongings and that they could accidentally be introduced into your home. We aren’t telling you this to scare you or make you want to live as a hermit; we are just trying to make you aware. Being aware will help you to take some necessary steps to help protect yourself and your family from bed bugs and reduce the chances of an infestation occurring in your home!

Bed bugs can be found in any place where there are large groups of people. Common places to come into contact with bed bugs include libraries, movie theaters, shopping centers, schools, airports, bus stations, hotels, motels, and even hospitals. In fact, just recently a hospital in Salisbury, North Carolina, became infested with bed bugs after a patient introduced them into the hospital. However, due to the hospital’s quick action the infected areas were treated by an experienced exterminator and all bed bugs were eliminated.

Since bed bugs have the potential to be in so many public areas, it is best to always be vigilant and try to protect yourself against them; just like you would try to prevent yourself from catching a cold from the grocery cart! Some tips to protect yourself and your family from bed bugs include:

  • When out in public keep your belongings with you (coats, bags, purses). Don’t place these items on the floors of public places.
  • Inspect upholstered seats for bed bugs before sitting down on them.
  • Before bringing luggage into a hotel room inspect the room, mattresses, and box springs for bed bugs.
  • Keep your luggage up off of the hotel floor.
  • Wash all clothing in hot water immediately after returning home from a trip.
  • Vacuum and wipe down your suitcase before storing it away in your home.
  • Routinely wash outerwear that you and your family wear on a regular basis.

It is important to remember that bed bugs don’t care about the cleanliness of the environment that they are in. They will live in a cluttered home, a budget motel, a 5 star hotel, or even in a sterilized hospital environment as long as one thing is available- a blood source. Bed bugs solely feed off of the blood of people; so as long as people are present they will be able to feed, breed, and thrive. The only true way to get rid of bed bugs whether you are a homeowner or business owner is with the help of a professional pest control specialist.

If bed bugs do ever hitchhike their way uninvited into your home, the best defense against them is to take quick action, don’t be embarrassed, bed bugs can infect any business or home. Active Pest Control can get rid of bed bugs from your home through our experienced and effective bed bug control program. Our professionals will inspect your home locate where the bed bugs are and then provide treatment services that include conventional methods and/or bed bug heat treatments. After an infestation is eliminated having routine inspections performed by our professionals will help to stop future problems with bed bugs from occurring!

For more information about bed bugs and how Active Pest Control can help you to control bed bugs in your home contact us today!

Bed Bugs In Rome

Though the bed bug, also known as Cimex lectularius, has a Roman name, this isn’t an article about the affliction these pests were in ancient Rome or how they got their name. Instead, we are going to take a look at how these bugs can affect us here in Rome, Georgia and some of the misconceptions people have about this pest that can sometimes create the conditions for even more frustration.

When bed bugs strike a business or public municipality, they can create a major problem. Here are a few of the reasons why.

There is a perception that bed bugs only inhabit nasty places. Though, this is not true, they can still foster a sense of embarrassment. This has a tendency to drive people to respond rashly, throwing out mattresses, couches, chairs and other furniture. This is actually not necessary. A bed bug heat treatment will kill bed bugs deep inside these items. It is also important to understand that if your business or organization receives donated furniture, you don’t have to require donations to be in the form of new furniture still in their packaging. It is understandable to want to go in this direction, but bed bugs are a hitchhiking bug. They can come inside bags and on clothing, not just inside furniture and mattresses.

For some people, these bugs can cause significant mental trauma. If you manage or run a property that has residents, a bed bug infestation can quickly lead to hysteria, and sometimes lawsuits. The key to prevention is routine inspections. Bed bug infestations can be stopped before they begin, but it requires the assistance of a professional.

These are elusive bugs. If treated improperly, bed bugs are adept at fleeing into the walls and into other parts of a building. This causes the infestation to spread or appear to be gone only to return in a few short months. At Active Pest Control, our technicians know how to corral bed bugs so they can’t escape during treatment.

Treatments disrupt residents and keep a property from being accessed for a period of time. For this reason, we work hard to make sure our treatments get the job done effectively, in as little time as possible.

Bed bug treatments cost money, and for a struggling business or municipality, this is an unwelcomed hardship. That’s why we keep our costs highly competitive and outline a plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

If you’re dealing with bed bugs in Rome, Georgia, click here or give us a call. There are a lot of misconceptions about these tiny blood-eating insects. But we’ll give you the answers you need and outline a solution to effectively protect your property and your reputation from the harmful effects of bed bugs.

Beach Bugs

No. This isn’t an article about sand fleas. It is about picking up bugs when you visit the beach. You may not realize it, but going on a trip is the best way to get bed bugs. These bugs are hitchhikers that establish their nests in places where humans live and sleep. If you’d like to avoid a bed bug infestation in your Atlanta home, the best way to do it is to be on the look out for bed bugs when you travel.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says there are a dozen great beaches to explore within driving distance of Atlanta. But, whether you’re looking for a small friendly beach like the one on Tybee Island, watersports and golfing like those found at Hilton Head, or the kind of pier park entertainment only Panama City Beach can provide, there is one thing for sure: You want to bring home memories, not bugs. So, no matter where you decide to take your beach vacation, follow this guide to prevent these bugs from traveling back with you.

The first step you should always take is to stop by bedbugregistry.com before you finalize your travel plans. Do a search for where you’ll be staying and see if anyone has reported issues with bed bugs there. Be aware that a few bed bugs found on a pillow, doesn’t mean the entire establishment is infested. These bugs travel in on other guests. Even if a hotel has the best pest program in the world, a few bugs can be brought in by one guest and reported by the next. Just keep your guard up and follow these tips.

  1. If you see a report on bedbugregistry.com, and it has you worried, it can ease your mind to know if it was an isolated incident. When you first arrive, ask someone at the desk what their bed bug plan is. If they have an immediate answer, that is a very good sign. It means they are actively fighting bed bugs.
  2. Always check your room before bringing your luggage in. Pull the blankets down on the bed and search for tiny rust-colored bugs, discarded casings or tiny brown blood stains. Pull up the edges of the sheets and examine the mattress creases and corners for black staining. And, use a flashlight to check the backboard and all upholstered furniture in the room.
  3. If you find bugs in your room, report them immediately, and request to be moved to another room. Be sure they don’t place you in an adjacent room, or a room that is above or below the room that is infested.
  4. Be calm. Even if you find bed bugs, it may be a small and isolated event. You’ll be fine, as long as they move you away from the infested room. Just be sure to refrain from leaving dirty clothes or wet towels on the floor during your stay and check all the seams of your luggage for bugs or white eggs when you pack to go home.
  5. When you get home, immediately wash and dry everything on the hottest temperature. This will kill bugs at every stage of development.
  6. If you believe you brought bugs home with you, call Active Pest Control of Atlanta to do an inspection and eradicate the bugs. Never try to do a heat treatment on your own.

Enjoy your time in the sun and surf, and keep a wary eye out for these bugs. Not only can they come home with you, they can leave unsightly red welts on your beach body. And, that is never a fun way to start a beach vacation.